wildlife

Ok - I was going to post a photo of a chicadee today, but then yesterday I looked out the window and saw something much much cooler...

I guess let me back up a little. Recently we've had a flock of turkeys wandering around the area (yes, I do have a couple photos I'll share of them soon), and so when I first looked out the window, I saw a bunch of dark spots in the corn field next to our house I just assumed they were the turkeys. Regardless, I went and got the binoculars for a closer look, and imagine my surprise when the birds I saw were something I've never seen before!

Anya had to grab one of our bigger bird ID books, because these are definitely native to this area. In fact, their normal migration route doesn't even show them as coming through here... so this truly was something interesting. Even more interesting was the fact that she somehow opened the book right to the page that identified what we were looking at - Greater White-fronted Geese (Anser albifrons).

I inched my way as close as I could trying to get the best photos I could (unfortunately, I probably should have taken the 1.4x teleconverter off for crisper photos)...

I am honestly disappointed with the results the 1.4x teleconverter gave me in these conditions (unfortunately, just as I went out, the already setting sun went behind a cloud, so lighting wasn't the greatest). At full size, these images are a bit soft for my liking, but for sharing here, even cropped, I guess they are ok...

I was amazed with how close I was getting (though honestly, according to the camera I was still more than 500 feet away from them). The geese appeared to be pretty unconcerned with me approaching. I would move up slightly, then stop and kneel (yeah - my knees were *freezing* from kneeling in the snow in single digit temperatures). A couple times the geese got up and moved around a little, but then settled right back into their spots.

Then without any hint that I had come too close or too quickly, the entire flock took wing. This is where I really regret having the 1.4x teleconverter on because focusing was much slower and the resulting images are much softer than I would have liked. I had just started thinking that I was close enough to consider taking the teleconverter back off, but I was too slow in making the decision to do so.

All told, we counted a maximum of fourteen geese in one of the shots, but I think there were probably more. A lot of them were hidden from view in the corn stalks and only seven of them were out in the front that I was able to take photos of.

Normally I would be more disappointed with these kinds of results from my photography, but considering the rarity of the subject, I decided to keep them to share anyway...

It did teach me a few more lessons though (hopefully ones I will remember)... I do need to do more test photos with the teleconverter to see if I get better results at higher apertures (I was at f/8 to get a decent shutter speed), but when in doubt, I should only use the teleconverter when absolutely necessary and get back to the regular lens as quickly as possible. Honestly, based on the results I got from my first images, I probably should have just continued with the lens by itself the whole time, but it is difficult not to give in to that temptation to want a little more magnification when your subject is so far away.

I will definitely keep looking to see if these geese stop by again, and if they do I'll hopefully be able to get some better photos. But to be completely honest, I can't say I expect to ever get to see these geese ever again unless I head to Texas or Alaska at some point! I am incredibly pleased that I did get the encounter that I did... seeing awesome stuff like this is precisely why Anya and I bought this property, and it is a privilege to experience stuff like this!

Since we installed the aerator in our pond, parts of it are remaining unfrozen throughout the winter... which means we get the chance for more migrating birds to stop by. Today was our first visitors in the form of a pair of swans (they are either Tundra Swans or Trumpeter Swans - we're not quite sure yet!).

I scared them off by moving in too quickly - I had hoped they would be a bit more confident to stick around and wasn't being as slow and cautious as I should have been... and I was probably a bit too excited. Hopefully they stop back and I can get more photos, and here's hoping that we get a bunch more uncommon migrators stopping by the pond soon!

Ok - so admittedly, I intentionally have not posted in a while, but that was so that I could post my 600th post on the six year anniversary of starting my blog. A lot has happened over six years, and I've taken a ton of photographs (I honestly don't even know how many!). I have done some bigger posts for other anniversaries, so I wanted to do something similar again... but how to do it.

Then it hit me, why not take a look back at my top six favorite styles of photography. Some have been a strong interest since the start (like macro photography of spiders and bugs), while some are pretty new (videography - ok, I know it isn't technically photography, but it still requires a camera!), and some I only enjoy sometimes (landscape), though others I'd do every day if I could (underwater), and some I work hard to get (wildlife), and others that I don't work for but allow it to come to me as the subject warrants (black & white). Of course sometime I am doing multiple styles of photography all at once. But let's take a quick stroll through some examples of each style with some photos that may have gotten over-shadowed or missed for whatever reason throughout the years...

Definitely my favorite form of photography, macro gives me the chance to show things that most people overlook or never even see. Of course, a lot of the time, those things are the "creepy crawlies" and spiders that most people don't want to see anyway... but I find those things fascinating. Particularly jumping spiders - my absolute favorite macro subject. But macro can be very versatile - spiders, bugs, flowers, abstracts, underwater, fungi, just about anything. And when other forms of photography just aren't feasible because of bad light conditions or such, there are always macro subjects to be found.

Admittedly, I don't consider myself a very good landscape photographer. It is an area I'd like to improve upon. I don't know if it is a perceived or real lack of good landscape subjects, or just a lack of skill to see and turn those good landscape subjects into good photos. But I do get lucky from time to time, and when you're in an iconic landscape such as Yosemite National Park, it is pretty easy. I'm cheating a little, because I have shared a very similar photo to this before, but I felt this shot is different enough that I'd use it here for my landscape example...

This is a style of photography that I have to admit I don't work at at all. I let this one come to me. If the scene or subject screams to me to be shot in black & white, I might see it while I'm taking the photo or sometimes not until I'm home and processing the photos on the computer and sometimes still not until months or years later looking back at the photo. The great thing about B&W photography is it can be merged with any type of photography, and as you'll see, I've tried it on just about every style of photography I do. Actually, that makes me realize that I have yet to ever convert a macro spider photo to black & white... I guess that will be an upcoming project! While I was tempted to process some new photos for this little set, I decided to just dig through the archives to find ones I'd processed previously and get them some due screen time...

Wildlife photography spans a number of areas for me... birds, reptiles and amphibians, mammals, truly wild, and zoo kept animals. All of it is a huge draw to me. Luckily, Anya and I have moved to a place where we get exposed to so much more wildlife than we did before. As such, I was able to pick this entire assortment from photos I've taken right here on our property or close by (technically the owl and the snake were from the local park where we go to walk the dogs). This is definitely what I probably consider one of my most difficult forms of photography. The amount of patience and luck required are simply staggering at times, and the time investment is one I wish I could devote more effort to. But as I said, luckily all of this is right outside our door, so the convenience factor certainly is helping me to improve and get better shots all the time!

My newest interest in photography, I enjoy putting some more life into my subjects and showing more than just a still image. I doubt it will ever become anything I do as intensely as regular photography, but it is definitely a new addition to the hobby. Whether it is with the GoPro camera during scuba dives, or with time lapse photography, video definitely gives me another creative outlet for the camera.

Well - what can I say about underwater photography other than I wish I could get to do it more often! It is a very challenging form of photography, and quite often by the time I'm getting into a groove and starting to feel like I'm able to get more creative with my shots, that's exactly when the trip is over and it will be another year before I get to try again. Honestly, if I could go diving every day, or even every weekend to hone my underwater photography skills, I would. For now though, I'll just have to be happy with the once a year that I do get to go experience and record such amazing things!

So there you have it... six styles of photography, six years worth of trips, experiences, passion, sights... all recorded and shared here in 600 posts. Amusingly enough, at three years, I made the claim that I looked forward to three more years but figured a site redesign was in order before then and I'm still using the exact same site. I do think that needs to change, but part of my reluctance is the fantastic compendium that this site has become for me. I quite often refer back to old posts to share things again or even just a reference for myself. So hopefully I can figure out the challenge of upgrading this site while maintaining the integrity of all of the history that I've built here. For now though, I'll focus on continuing to capture and share photos like these!

Thanks for stopping by!

- Bill

PS: If you are interested in exploring further into some of these examples, the section headers and the "button" below are links to the history of posts that have been tagged with that label, so if you want to see more of any specific style of photography, just click and explorer!

So we technically should still see Cedar Waxwings in the winter, but it seems like the group that we had been seeing on a regular basis have moved on. They would come visit our pond just around sunset every night, so getting good sharp photographs was always a challenge.

I know I've posted severalotherposts with probably better Green Heron photos, but I figured I'd share these as it appears our little family of herons that had been living on our pond have moved south for the winter.

Here's hoping they return next year to continue growing their family so I can get some more photos.